The invention relates generally to telecommunication networks and methods, and more particularly to systems and methods for monitoring voice service feature failures and generating maintenance tickets in response to such failures.
Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) is a method for transmitting voice telephone calls using a computer network based on the internet protocol (“IP”). VoIP telephony offers many advantages over placing calls using the Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”), such as allowing users to employ a single network to carry both data traffic and voice traffic. VoIP telephony also allows service providers to offer advanced service features not available with PSTN calling plans. One such service features is, for example, a “locate me” feature, which is an advanced type of call forwarding that allows a user to select multiple alternate end devices to which an incoming call is automatically transferred when the user is not available at their assigned end device. Another such service feature is, for example, a “do not disturb” feature, which is an advanced form of call screening that notifies the calling party that the user does not wish to be disturbed unless the incoming call is an emergency.
To facilitate the management of VoIP networks, some service providers collect information for each VoIP call attempted or successfully placed. Such information can include the duration of the call, the identity of the calling party, the identity of the called party, and the reason for the termination of the call. The compilation of such information is commonly known as a call-detail record (“CDR”). Known network management systems and methods employ the information included in CDR's for many different purposes, including network maintenance. For example, when a user reports call failures on a VoIP network, a service provider can use the information included in the CDR's to isolate a possible cause and location of the failure.
The information included in the CDR's, however, is often insufficient to identify a failure associated with a service feature. Furthermore, because a service feature failure does not necessarily result in a failed call, users are often unaware that such a failure has occurred. For example, a user having a “locate me” feature may designate five different end devices to receive incoming calls in a serial fashion. A failure associated with this feature may result in the incoming calls being routed to the alternate end devices in a parallel fashion. In such a case, the information included within a CDR is insufficient to identify this service feature failure. Furthermore, in many cases the user will be unaware that a service feature failure has occurred.
Thus, a need exists for a system monitoring voice service feature failures and generating automatically maintenance tickets in response to such failures, the maintenance tickets being generated in a manner that prevents excessive and duplicative maintenance tickets from being issued.